Growing Object-Oriented Software, Guided by Tests

Chapter 4. Kick-Starting the Test-Driven Cycle

We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start a thing. Action always generates inspiration. Inspiration seldom generates action.

—Frank Tibolt

Introduction

The TDD process we described in Chapter 1 assumes that we can grow the system by just slotting the tests for new features into an existing infrastructure. But what about the very first feature, before we have this infrastructure? As an acceptance test, it must run end-to-end to give us the feedback we need about the system’s external interfaces, which means we must have implemented a whole automated build, deploy, and test cycle. This is a lot of work to do before we can even see our first test fail.

Deploying and testing right from ...